Epidemic
by Septdeneuf
Summary: There's not many things that can bring a saiyan immune system down. So when Goten falls sick with a mysterious illness, it could mean trouble for more than just his friends and family.
1. Chapter 1

„Goten, breakfast is ready!"

The instant Son Goten woke up and heard his mothers voice cut through the silence he felt a headache coming on. He liked his mother's voice, even if she could get a little high pitched sometimes. Right now though it seemed to be the most unpleasant sound in the world. He groaned, and turned around in his bed, which seemed to be tilting back and forth as he moved. He put his hand over his forehead in the hopes that the cool skin would help his headache.

„Goten, sweetie, wake up!"

Slowly, his eyelids fluttered open, and he could dimly see his bedroom which was illuminated by beautiful morning light flooding in through the window.

He would've found it beautiful, at least, if the rays didn't pierce his head with pain. Mechanically, he moved to get up out of bed, more out of habit than because of a conscious decision and was so uncoordinated that he immediately landed on his but.

Tears filled his eyes at the dull pain, and already the small demi-saiyan had the urge to crawl right back into bed and sleep the day away so that the next one might start a little better.

His thoughts seemed to be waking up much more slowly than the rest of him. He began to remember that today he was going to visit Trunks, and they were gonna play. Also he noticed a strange feeling of his stomach being empty, but having absolutely no appetite.

Groggily, he pushed himself to his feet, and got a severely spinning room as his reward. He was gonna have to go into the kitchen now, and eat. Or he could go back to bed and tell his mom he was sick.

But he didn't want his mom to worry over him. She was always so worried about everything, about how much both he and his brother were studying, about bills and about so many other things that Goten didn't have any hope of understanding. Seeing her worried and unhappy made him sad.

She had been like that as long as he could remember, and he had always thought that it was because his father was dead and that made her sad. He had often wished for his Dad to come home when he lay awake in bed at night for the first seven years of his life, so that his Mom could stop worrying and be happy.

And that wish had come true. His Dad was back from the dead full time, and at first Goten couldn't have been happier. He had quickly realized why Gohan had always spoken of their Dad so fondly, and whenever his Dad was doing something with him, Goten couldn't be happier or have more fun.

But somehow things hadn't changed as much as he'd been hoping for. Goku had been back in the family for almost a year now, but somehow that worried frown still found its way onto Chichi's features all too often. And somehow, even though he was living with them, Goku was abscent quite a lot, and his young son didn't know what to make of it.

Still, throughout everything, and no matter how worried Chichi was about all the strange things that seemed to be attacking her, there was one thing, that could always, infallible, put a smile onto her face, and make her stop worrying, at least for a moment.

And that something was Goten. However, if he told her he was feeling ill, she would have one more thing to be worried about, and he didn't want that. He wanted to go into the kitchen with a big smile on his face and see his mom answer it with a smile of her own. So that was what he was going to do.

Besides, it probably wasn't all that bad anyway. While he'd been standing there, thinking about this, the room had almost stopped spinning. He knew that one could get woozy from getting up to fast, or eating too much ice cream too fast, and that wasn't anything to worry about either.

It was probably something like that.

Yes, it must be, he decided, and went into the kitchen.

„Hi mom!", he said happily, but couldn't help feeling his own voice hurting his ears.

„Good morning, Goten", his mother said with a smile as she saw him come in. She was just putting some freshly washed dishes back into one of the cabinets. „I'm going to go outside and put the laundry up to dry. Can you put the dishes in the sink when you're done, please?"

„Sure mom", he said, and jumped onto his customary chair at the breakfast table.

„Okay, good", she said, and then went outside. Once she was gone, the happy look on Goten's face dropped somewhat. He was staring at what would've been a huge amount of food for any normal human, but was a pretty normal helping by saiyan standards. And as he was looking at all the nice food, he realized that he wasn't even remotely interested in consuming any of it.

He didn't have any appetite, and his stomach felt weird when he thought about eating. But that was just weird. He loved eating, after all? He picked up a pair of chopsticks, and began attacking a bowl of rice.

Under normal circumstances he would've attacked it, anyway. This time he felt as if he had to actively force himself to transport the food from the bowl into his mouth. After he was only about halfway through, he pushed the bowl away, the weird grumblings in his stomach telling him that he just couldn't go on.

He hadn't really felt all that hungry the last few days, either, but never before had Goten found himself that disinterested in food.

His mother was still outside, and Goten decided to put the food into the refrigerator. If he threw it away and out the dishes into the sink as if he had eaten the food it would probably have looked much less suspicious, but the idea of throwing away food seemed to fundamentally wrong to Goten that he couldn't bring himself to do it.

So he just put the food away and hoped his mother wouldn't think too much of it when she found it.

He went outside and waved cheerfully to his mom. „Mom, I'm off to Trunks's now!"

„Alright, have fun, sweetie. Fly carefully!"

* * *

Trunks eyed the clock on the wall with annoyance. When his mother or anyone else expected him to do something he didn't like he purposefully avoided all the chronometers in the house, or just feigned not knowing how to read them, so that he could get away with being late. Of course neither of his parents believed for one second that he didn't know how to interpret what the clock was telling him, but both his grandparents were clueless enough for him to get away with that.

When he wanted something, however, he was all too aware of what time it was, and how other people weren't punctual. Apparently he had picked up his obsession with punctuality from his Dad, who never tolerated him being late for training.

Unfortunately though, he was best friends with Goten, who honestly had no idea what the hands of a clock wanted him to know from their movements. So waiting for him to show up could become a little frustrating.

And Trunks was bored. His father was training on the highest gravity setting, so Trunks had no desire at all to join him to pass the time, and his mom was working in her office, on what she called ‚administrative duties' and what her nine-year old referred to as ‚applied boredom'. Which was a pity, because had she been in her lab he could've had some fun terrorizing the scientist types. On second thought, he could do that when his mom wasn't in the lab, anyway, but it wasn't so much fun when he was alone.

Finally he sensed Goten's ki approaching. It was lower than he expected it to be. Usually Goten flew to Capsule Corp at full speed, but it looked like his partner in crime was taking his time today.

Trunks got up from the couch with a sigh and went outside to greet his friend.

„Hey Goten! What took you so long?", Trunks said as he was waving.

„Nothing, I was just not flying so fast", Goten said as he landed, and scratched the back of his head in that unmistakable gesture that his father was known for. „Am I late?"

„Yeah. But nevermind, you're here now. I was just gonna go grab a snack, and then I thought we could cause some mayhem in the science lab", Trunks said with a mischievous smirk.

„Okay", Goten said, but he didn't look quite as enthusiastic about the prospect of mayhem as he usually did. But Trunks was sure he was gonna be able to fix that once they were in action.

„So, want to eat something?", Trunks said, as he went in the direction of the kitchen, his partner in crime following.

„No, I'm not hungry."

Trunks spun around and did a slightly exaggerated double take. „That's the first time I ever heard you say those words in my life!"

„I just ate at home", Goten said, and looked a little uncomfortable at the scrutiny.

„Oh. Okay, I'll just get something for myself, then", Trunks said with a shrug. He was pretty confident that once Goten was watching him eat he would start stealing some of his food, no matter how ‚not hungry' he was, so he chose to get a little more than he would need on his own.

„So anyway, why do you want to go to the science lab?"

Trunks went about fishing more or less random things to eat out of various cabinets. „I'm bored. And watching the nerds trying to keep us under control is always fun. Why, you got a better idea?" Goten usually didn't have better ideas on what they should do, and was happy following Trunks' lead, but every once in awhile he would surprise his friend and come up with a devious plan of his own.

„No, that's okay", Goten said, and still sounded less than enthusiastic.

Trunks went and dumped the snacks he'd gathered on the kitchen table. As he did so, he took the time to really look at his friend. Goten looked a little paler than usual, and something about the way he was sitting at the table looked tired and subdued, both things that couldn't normally be attributed to his energetic friend.

„Are you alright?", Trunks asked, as he sat down, and started eating a chocolate bar.

„I kinda have a headache", Goten admitted.

„Oh. So you're not up for torturing scientists?"

„We can do that, if you want." Goten tried, and failed to look excited about the idea.

„It's no fun if you can't properly enjoy it", Trunks declared. „Maybe we should just make a plan for now, and then make it really spectacular."

„Okay", was all Goten said. Trunks felt torn between getting annoyed at Goten's apathetic mood and the feeling of worry that was starting to rise in him.

„Let's go upstairs to play", Trunks said when he was done with his food, none of which had been touched by the younger demi-saiyan. Goten nodded, and got up, but when he was standing he blinked a few times and had to steady himself against the wall.

„Goten? Are you sure you're okay?", Trunks asked worriedly.

„Yeah, just a little…" Goten said quietly, when he suddenly pressed his hand to his forhead, and fell forwards towards the floor.

Trunks caught him in time, and could do nothing but stare at his friend for a moment. „Goten?", he asked cautiously, but didn't get any reaction at all. He shook his friend by the shoulders and said his name again, but he didn't get any reaction that time either.

Goten's face was flushed, and when Trunks held his hand to his forehead as he had seen his mom do, whenever he feigned to be sick to get out of something he didn't want to do, his friend's face felt distinctly hot.

Trunks felt a sense of panic rise up in him, but then he quickly reminded himself of the fact that he was saiyan, and he could deal with problems. He quickly considered getting his mom or his dad, but what would be the point?

Both of them would just tell him to take Goten to the Capsule Corp infirmary, and that little piece of logic was one that Trunks could figure out for himself.

* * *

Trunks did his best to keep himself from fidgeting, as the nurse… or doctorish person or whatever she really was examined his unconcious friend. He really didn't like the look on the young med tech's face while she shone a light in Goten's eyes and did several other things that Trunks couldn't quite see the point of.

„So? What's wrong with him?", Trunks asked impatiently after a while.

„I'm… not quite sure", the brunette answered hesitantly.

„What do you mean? Aren't you supposed to know this kind of stuff?"

„Well, yes, but I don't have the proper equipment here. I think it might be best, if you took him to the hospital", she suggested.

„Hospital?" Trunks stared at her incredulously. „Is it that bad?"

„Not necessarily", she replied quickly. „It's just that they have all the machines and labs there they need to figure out what's wrong with him and how to help him. It's probably nothing so bad, but we're equipped to deal with cuts and scrapes and lab accidents, not with this kind of thing." Her tone was reassuring.

„Isn't a normal doctor's office enough, then? If it's about dealing with sick people?", Trunks said. Somehow the notion of a hospital was a little more than he felt confident handling.

„Well he did pass out. They can treat him much better in a hospital."

„Right" Tunks looked at his friend who had yet to wake up after almost half an hour. He really hoped that he didn't actually need to be in a hospital.

„Should I call an ambulance, then?", the brunette suggested.

„No. I can take him there, I'm faster", Trunks replied.

The med tech nodded. „Okay. Do you know how to get to West City Central Hospital?" Among the staff of Capsule Corp the superhuman capabilities of some members of the Briefs family and their friends were well known, so that they didn't worry too much about the idea of flying anymore.

„Yeah. I just hope they don't find anything too bad."

* * *

Goten had gotten admitted surprisingly quickly. Part of that probably had to do with the fact that he was brought to the hospital by a flying lavender haired child, which made him noticeable enough for the hospital staff to get to him more quickly. Another, and maybe even more significant factor had probably been that Trunks had no idea what kind of health insurance the Son family had (if any) and he'd just told the hospital staff that if he couldn't figure it out Capsule Corp would cover the costs of anything.

Right now Trunks was sitting outside Goten's room, waiting for them to be done drawing blood, and cursing himself for forgetting to bring a cell phone. There was a pay phone, but he didn't have Chichi's number memorized.

He'd been so worried about his friend that the idea of having to tell his parents about what was going on hadn't occured to him quite that easily.

What he was even more concerned about right now, though, was the fact that none of the medical people fussing over Goten right now had made any indication yet that they knew what was wrong with his best friend.

Still, he would have to take care of telling people, now. He got up and went to the end of the hall way were the payphone was located. He dug some change out of his pocket, slid it into the proper slot, and dialed the number of his mom's office, which really was the only phone number he knew by heart.

After the second ring the cheerful voice of her secretary was heard. „Capsule Corporation, Bulma Briefs' office, how may I help you?"

„Hi, it's Trunks, could I talk to my mom, please?"

„Of course, I'm patching you through." Some jazzy music started playing while he waited for his mom to pick up her end of the line.

„Hey Trunks, what's up?", his mothers voice piped out of the receiver. „Is everything okay?"

„Uh, not really. I'm at West City Central, right now…", was all he could say before his mom interjected.

„The hospital? Are you alright?"

„I'm fine, but Goten isn't."

„What? Did he get hurt? Did you two do something?" Bulma sounded worried, but Trunks couldn't miss the accusatory tone beneath that.

„No, mom, we didn't do anything. He said he had a headache, and then he just collapsed. I took him to the infirmary, but they said that they didn't have the proper stuff they need to find out what's wrong with him, and told me to bring him here."

„Oh." For a moment his mother was silent. „So, did they find out? Is he okay?"

„Well they don't know what he has yet. But I forgot to bring my phone, so I can't call aunt Chichi. Can you call her for me?"

„Of course. Do you want me to come over?"

He contemplated this for a moment. He considered himself grown up enough to deal with this situation alone, and since he wasn't the one that was sick, he didn't really need his mother to hold his hand. But then he remembered seeing how sick and tiny Goten looked in that hospital bed with an IV in his arm, and how terrified that sight made him.

„Yes please." His mom would probably know what to do about the insurance thing, too.

„Okay, I'll contact Chichi and then I'll be on my way. Call me if anything changes."

„I will. Bye, mom."

After he hung up the phone and went back to Goten's room he couldn't help but feel a bit silly about asking his mom to come. He had been responsible enough to deal with this, after all.

When he got near the room he heard someone shouting, a sudden frantic beeping and people started running towards the room. He joined them and couldn't believe what he saw.

Goten was thrashing wildly, and randomly without being awake. Someone was yelling something about „seizure" and even though Trunks didn't know too many things about medicine, he did know that that was a pretty bad thing.

Too nurses were trying to hold him down, and a doctor had a needle ready to give him a shot, but the humans didn't even stand a chance. Without thinking twice, Trunks ran over there, and pressed Goten into the bed, which helped lessen his thrashing the medical stuff a little bit.

The medical staff seemed to be perplexed at how an eight year old kid could possibly be strong enough for them not to be able to hold him, and even more at the fact that another kid was the only one capable of restraining him, but they were grateful enough for the help not to question it.

The doctor was finally able to give Goten the shot, and after another few frantic seconds, the younger saiyan settled down, and the seizure stopped.

Trunks released his hold on his friend, and stumbled several steps backwards. The humans were saying something to him, but he couldn't concentrate enough to understand any of it.

The entire time he'd been trying to tell himself that it was nothing serious, and that the only problem was that the humans didn't find out what was wrong, but now there was no denying it any more.

Whatever had gotten his friend down was bad.

Very bad.

* * *

A/N: Been trying to write this for a while. Please tell me what you think!


	2. Chapter 2

Chichi didn't mind hanging up the laundry. In fact she enjoyed those moments she spent outside by herself in the sunshine. And she especially didn't mind that she had to hang up more clothes now, than she had only a year ago.

Having her husband re-enter her family had been her dream for a long time, but it had also been a slightly strange experience, for all of them. Not in a bad way, of course, but when it came to everyday life all of them had discovered that so many gradual changes had happened in their life that they hadn't even noticed. All of these things made it just a little bit more difficult for Goku to return living there.

Chichi could tell that her husband had been torn about that. On the one hand, he was happy that they had moved on and were doing fine without him, since he hadn't expected to ever come back, but then again he'd been sad to find his own role in the family not nearly as vital or clearly marked as it had been before.

Now, almost a year later, though, they had finally settled into a new routine, and Chichi relished every moment she could spend with her happy family of four. That's the way it always should have been, and it was just as magical as she had always imagined it to be, during those seven lonely years when one side of the bed had been perpetually cold.

Well maybe not quite as magical. As happy as she was with her family, the fact that they were whole again hadn't changed anything about her real world problems. The tournament had something she had been eager for, not only because of the fact that Goku had been allowed to return for it, but also because new price money would've really helped a lot to alleviate their financial problems.

But as it had turned out, her youngest son was the only one to bring any winnings home. And even he had only made second place. While she knew that Goten had done his best, and in a tournament you can never tell beforehand who's going to win, she was a little bit angry at Trunks for winning. Of course he was good, and yes, he deserved the honor that came with it, but he and his family really didn't need the money.

Unlike them. She hadn't wanted to take Goten's winnings away from him, since he had worked so hard for that money, but her youngest had surprised her one evening when she had been sitting at the kitchen table trying to figure out a way to make ends meet, faced with a stack of bills.

He had hopped onto the chair next to her, and told her earnestly, in a tone she rarely heard from him, "Why don't you use the money I won at the Tournament?"

"Oh honey, that's yours. I don't want to take that from you. You earned it. Don't worry about this, Sweetie", she had replied.

"But I don't need it, and you do. I don't want you to worry so much. I don't like when all the letters make you unhappy."

"That's sweet of you, Goten, but really, the money's yours. You can buy yourself some nice toys, whatever you want."

"I don't need to. Trunks gave me three of his toys, because he used his left hand in our fight, so I have everything I want."

"His left hand?" She'd stared at her youngest in puzzlement.

"It was a thing. He said he could beat me with one hand. But he couldn't" Goten looked extremely proud at the fact that it took two hands to beat him. "So you can have the money, mom!"

She had thought about it for a little while, because it really had been important to pay those bills, and the money wasn't first price money, but still a significant enough amount to seriously help out. He had offered it freely, after all, it wasn't like she was stealing it.

"Thank you, Goten, that helps me a lot." When she had smiled at him and ruffled his hair, his face had lit up. She loved when Goten beamed at her. He was like the best drug ever. Whenever she was around him she couldn't help but feel better. Goku was like that, most of the time, as well, but it wasn't quite the same. She knew that if she hadn't had her littlest one in those seven years she probably would've sunk into a depression.

Her musings were suddenly interrupted by the ringing of the phone. She put the shirt she'd been holding back into the laundry basket so it wouldn't get blown away by the wind and then rushed inside to pick it up.

"Son family residence", she chirped into the receiver happily. Thinking about her family always put her into a good mood.

"Hey Chichi", Bulma's voice hesitantly said. "Listen, there's something wrong with Goten. He's at the hospital."

* * *

A faint smell of disinfectant found its way into Bulma's nostrils as she stepped out of the elevator into the hallway the receptionist had informed her held Goten's room.

She checked a sign on the wall to know which way to go. She wasn't at all reassured by the fact that there seemed to be some confusion over there. She had just gotten off the phone with Chichi, and had really hated having to do that. She knew how she would feel if something was wrong with her son, and the vague details she had given wouldn't have made her feel reassured, either.

When she got closer to the room, a nurse with a chubby face holding a stack of forms came out of it. "Oh hello. Are you the mother?" She looked as if she was slightly desperate about finding Goten's mom.

"Um, no, I'm Trunks' mother."

"Oh, the kid with the purple", the woman gestured towards her head and Bulma nodded. "Well that makes sense. Well, maybe, do you know anything about what insurance the boy has? Because I have to put something on the form… Your son said that if there was a problem your company would take care of the costs… I don't know, is that correct?"

"Yes, sure, we can cover it, no problem. But his mother's on the way, she should be here in a couple of hours, maybe sooner, and we can sort it out then."

"Oh that's good", the nurse said, and scribbled something on one of her papers.

"So, did you find out what's wrong with Goten yet?", Bulma asked, concerned.

"No, not yet. We just sent a blood sample to the lab, once they're done we'll know a little more."

"So, um where's my son?"

"Inside" The nurse gestured towards the room.

"Is it okay if I go in?" Honestly Bulma wasn't quite sure of what was appropriate, now. She wasn't a family member, but right now she was the only adult to take care of this mess.

"Yes, sure", the nurse said, then went to go somewhere else.

Bulma pushed the door open, to find another nurse and a doctor talking to each other quietly. Trunks was standing in a corner and looking quite distraught. Looking at Goten, she could hardly blame him. Her son's best friend was unconcious and much paler than he had any right to be. Also, there was a slight frown on his face, and that wasn't normal at all for Goten. Whenever he slept he had a huge smile on his face, telling of happy dreams and childish innocence. There barely ever was anything resembling a frown on the small half saiyan's face.

"Mom!", Trunks perked up as he saw her, and ran over to her to hug her. He clutched her somewhere around her legs, and it was one of those rare moments when she actually noticed her son being small. Usually he wouldn't have reacted to seeing her like that, anyway. Public displays of affection weren't cool when parents were concerned, as he had informed her a while ago.

"Hey", she said softly and patted his head.

"Goten had a seizure! They still don't know what he has, but it must be bad." Trunks looked up at her and his eyes were shimmering with tears.

For a moment her breath hitched in her throat, and she didn't know what to say. She had just told Chichi not to worry, but she had known that was futile. Any parent would worry, and Chichi was one who was particularly prone to it. And from the looks of it had every reason to.

Bulma saw the doctor walking over to Goten's bed, apparently to check something. "Let's go outside for a minute", she suggested and left the room with Trunks still clinging to her.

"So, tell me what happened", she said softly when they had both sat down on the waiting room chairs outside.

"I just got off the phone with you and went back here, when suddenly everything went crazy. Goten was thrashing, and I held him down, because they couldn't", he sniffled a little.

"And you told them to use our insurance?"

"Yeah, when we got here. I didn't know about his, but I know the company has all these programs, so I thought it would work. That's okay, right?" He looked at her doubtfully.

"Yes, of course. You handled all of this really well, Trunks. I'm proud of you" She really was amazed.

"Well I don't want to be responsible anymore", he said and crossed his arms. He sniffled again.

"You don't have to be. I'm here now, Chichi's on her way, and I sent Vegeta to get Gohan and Goku", Bulma told him. "But you really did good", she added, and pulled him into a one-armed hug.

They were quiet for a moment. "I'm scared", Trunks said after a while.

"I'm sure it's gonna be okay. Saiyans have really strong immune systems. He's gonna be okay."

Even as she was saying the words, she couldn't help but doubt if they were true. After all, Saiyans did have strong immune systems. So for something to get to Goten this badly, it had to be something very bad. She only hoped they found out what it was, soon.

* * *

Chichi had no idea why people even bothered building means of transportation that were so damnably slow. As she pressed down the accelerator pedal she felt as if the car only took her wish to go faster as a friendly suggestion.

A look at the speedometer told her that wasn't true, but it still felt way too slow. When she saw a sign announcing a change in speed limit, she groaned out loud. Why the hell would people build cars that were to incredibly slow, and then make rules for them to go even slower than they already were by design?

Of course, usually she supported the virtue of a speed limit and wouldn't want anyone to go faster than that, but had she met the man who put up that sign right now, he would've had a very unpleasant encounter with the business side of her frying pan.

If only Gohan had taken his cell phone with him. He and his father were out training, somewhere far away from Mount Pazou because they didn't want to damage the scenery. She still remembered how Gohan had told her he'd forgotten to charge his phone, so he'd left it on the living room table. Taking it with him when it couldn't serve its purpose and risk it being smashed or forgotten due to their training match would've been stupid, after all.

But that had led to the nerve-wrecking situation Chichi found herself in, now. She was now seperated from her family by a distance that would've been inconsequential to both her sons and absolutely nothing to their father, and it was almost insurmountable for her.

She had no way of contacting them, but she couldn't just wait around for their return, either, because she knew she would go crazy sitting around the house, not knowing what was going on with her youngest child.

Bulma told her she was going to send Vegeta to go look for them. If he reached them before she got to the hospital, Goku could just use his Instant Transmission to pick her up, and then take her to the hospital, so she could get there just a little faster, but she wasn't quite convinced they'd remember to.

Of course her husband was always more concentrated in crisis situations, but she wouldn't be surprised if upon hearing that his son was sick he would immediately rush to see him, without considering anything else. But truth be told, if that was the case she couldn't quite blame him. Her first thought had only been to get to that hospital, and if her husband weren't the most convenient method of transportation she knew, telling him what was wrong probably wouldn't have occurred to her until much later.

Besides, she had no idea how long it would take Vegeta to fly to wherever Goku and Gohan were. It was quite possible that she would get there in the car sooner than he did, depending on how far away from West City Goku and Gohan were. And it also depended on whether Vegeta would even go looking for them. Chichi wasn't quite sure whether to trust that. But then again, he always did what Bulma told him to, so he probably would.

Just as she was contemplating that, three figures appeared in front of her on the road. Other people probably would've been startled and swerved the car into a bush, but since she was prepared she just hit the brakes as hard as she could and trusted them to jump out of the way if it took too long a distance to get to a standstill.

As it was, she stopped about a foot from Goku's knee. Immediately she pulled the key out of the ignition and threw the door open in one swift gesture.

Goku just held a hand out for her to grab, but Gohan interrupted. "Uh, what about the car?"

She looked at him, startled for a moment. "Good… point", she conceded. She hadn't even bothered to lock the car. Leaving it somewhere by the side of the road was a bad idea of course. A car was expensive, loosing it would be bad, but there was no way she was gonna drive all the way…

Wait a second. She slapped her forehead, and ran back to the car. She looked at the outside of the driver door for a moment, and then found the switch. She pressed it, and with a 'Pow' the car became a neat little capsule. It had been so long since she had gotten the car, and she had never encapsulated it, that she'd completely forgotten it was possible.

"Okay, let's go."

* * *

There was a weird beeping sound when he woke up. For a moment he just listened to it, both mesmerized and confused by it. Then, slowly, Goten's eyelid fluttered open to be greeted by stark white hospital lighting, which made his head feel even worse than it had before. And he felt like a steamroller had tried to pave it in, multiple times.

He looked around, confused to see something sticking out of his arm, but then…

"Goten! Oh thank god you're awake", his mom said, who he just noticed was sitting next to the bed was in. How had he even gotten there? Hadn't he been at Trunks' before?

"Hey mom", he said, and his voice sounded weird to him.

"I was so worried about you, Sweetie", she said, but the relief of seeing him awake was evident on her features.

He was just about to tell her that he didn't want to worry her, but he felt a weird pain in his throat. Before the words could even get out, Goten started coughing, and once he started it seemed that he couldn't stop.

His lungs felt like they were on fire, and he pressed his hand against his chest, to alleviate the pressure a little. When he saw that the hand he was holding in front of his moth was covered in something red, he dimly wondered how it got there.

As he kept coughing, he started to feel the lack of air. He tried to take a breath through his coughing, but he just couldn't stop. He heard a voice say "Respiratory distress" but he had no idea what that meant.

When he lost conciousness, the last thing he saw was his mother screaming something and looking extremely worried. Frightened.

He was out when the medical people were pushing a tube into his throat, and he had no idea of just how much blood that had come from his lungs was now covering the sheets.

* * *

A/N: I'm usually not one to put up chapters that quickly. Please review and tell me what you think!


	3. Chapter 3

He looked so extremely small. Of course, he was only eight years old, and he was a normal size for his age, but usually Goten's spirit and exuberance made him seem so much bigger than he actually was.

But now, with a tube coming out of his mouth, and incredibly pale, in what seemed to be a huge hospital bed he seemed tiny. And Chichi had trouble looking at her little boy like that without having tears well up in her eyes.

She probably should've taken comfort in the monotone beep-beep-beep of the cardiac monitor, which proved that her son was more or less stable, but the fact that anyone would even need to monitor his heartbeat was almost unbearable for her.

Especially because that machine was accompanied by its so much scarier friend: the Respirator. Every few heartbeats a loud hiss sounded when air was pushed into her little boy's lungs. Of course, that was helping him. But that he needed it…

She had toyed with the idea of leaving the room for a little bit, because being in here, hearing the noises, smelling the sterile smells of the hospital was tearing her up inside. But leaving Goten alone would probably be so much worse. He needed his mother. She was convinced of that, regardless of whether he even knew that she was there. She was resolute about not leaving.

If only that were true of her husband, then maybe all of this wouldn't hurt quite as much. She wasn't even quite sure where Goku was right now. During the past few hours most of their friends had arrived, because they had heard what had happened, and wanted to lend their support, which was nice enough, but for whatever reason her husband seemed to feel responsible for entertaining them or something. All she knew was, that ever since Krillin had arrived Goku had been somewhere else.

"Hey", she suddenly heard a whisper, and she turned to see Goku entering the room. Think of the devil, or something like that.

"Where've you been?", she asked. She hadn't meant for her comment to sound quite as hostile, but it sound very accusatory.

"I just brought the others up to speed. I've only been gone for like twenty minutes", he defended himself.

Chichi raised an eyebrow, and then looked at her watch. He was right, it hadnt been very long. She sighed.

"Sorry.I thought it was longer. This just… messes me up."

"Nevermind. Did you hear anything new from the doctors?", Goku said as he sat down next to her.

She just shook her head. Honestly she wasn't really sure whether she really wanted the doctors to show up. She was too scared of what they might tell her.

For a while they just sat there in silence. Goku seemed to sense that she wasn't really up to talking. Still, him just being there helped. A little, at least.

When the door opened to reveal a female doctor with big glasses Chichi was both relieved and scared. Not knowing what was going on was bad, but knowing was potentially so much worse.

"Mr. And Mrs. Son?", the doctor asked. She wasn't the one that had asked her about Goten's medical history and their insurance, so she didn't know them.

"Yes?", Chichi said, and stood up so suddenly that even Goku was startled by her movement.

"Um… you might want to sit down", the red-headed doctor suggested shyly.

"You can't say something that ominous and expect me to be calm enough to actually sit down now", Chichi barked. Goku shrugged at the doctor who seemed to be shrinking behind her clipboard. "So what is it?"

"Well, we've got the results back from the blood test, and we're pretty sure we found the cause for you son's condition."

"Which is…?", Chichi pressed, impatiently.

"She was getting to that", Goku said, but the look he got from his wife immediately shut him up.

"To be honest, we don't know what it is. The lab technician said he'd never seen anything like it. It's impressive they even found it, but we can't identify it."

"Can't identify…" Chichi repeated quietly. She didn't know what the implications of that were, but she had a feeling it wouldn't be good.

"We're not even quite sure whether it's viral or bacterial. He has an infection, but we know nothing about it."

"So… what are you going to do about it?", Chichi asked tentatively. Her previous volatile mood had dissipated almost as quickly as it had come.

"Well, we're going to start him on broad-spectrum antibiotics and antivirals. We hope that these might help, but while we do that, we're trying to find out more about what he's infected with. We're also going to need to put him under quarantine."

"Quarantine? Why would you do that?", Chichi asked.

"As I said, we know nothing about his condition, and it could be contagious. We need to minimize any such risk. Also, we need to test everyone he's been in contact with prior to the outbreak to see whether anyone else is infected."

"Oh… okay", Chichi said.

"If you don't mind, I'd like to start with you right now", the doctor said, and took a syringe out of her lab-coat pocket.

There was a yelp, and before Chichi could even identify what was the problem, her husband had vanished.

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"So she wanted to draw blood?", Bulma asked.

"Yes, and Goku just split. He's so scared of needles, but still… I didn't think he'd leave like that. It's for his own good!" Chichi seemed rather helpless as they were standing in the hallway, waiting for Goten to be transferred to an isolation unit. Bulma really couldn't blame her. Being told that your child has some unknown disease with unknown prognosis would mess up anybody.

"Needles usually are. But that doesn't hold up so well against a full-blown phobia", Bulma said.

"So what are we gonna do? What if he's infected and going around infecting other people with whatever it is? He needs to be tested!"

"You're right." Bulma sincerely hoped that Goku didn't have anything, because she really hoped it wasn't contagious, but Chichi did have a point. If he did have it, that could possibly be very bad. "But I think I have an idea", she said, when she saw that the nurse was done drawing Vegeta's blood.

"Really? What?"

"Vegeta, honey, would you come over here a second?" He turned around and graced her with his costumary scwol, a little deepened by the fact that she had called him "honey" and done so in public, nonetheless. But he came over anyway.

"What?", he asked gruffly.

"I need you to take a syringe and draw Goku's blood so it can be tested."

"I'm not a nurse", Vegeta snorted.

"Yes, I know, but you do have a sadistic streak, and Goku ran away, and you're probably the only one who can find him and contain him long enough to draw blood. He's too afraid of needles."

"Wait, so you're basically asking me to deliberately torture Kakarott with his biggest fear?"

"Well I can try to find someone else, if you have moral objections to that…", Bulma said as innocently as she could manage.

"Give me the syringe."

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Saiyans were natural born hunters. Their skill at tracking their prey and hunting it down were born from millienia of evolving on a planet of little edible vegetation, with ground mostly so infertile that farming didn't become a viable option until watering systems had been invented.

Vegeta himself, of course, was a prime example of his people's skill and was experienced with many sorts of prey.

Too bad his prey this time could sense his ki and vanish in an instant if so inclined. That truely made things more difficult. Another thing was the strength difference he only grudgingly admitted to. If Kakarrot decided to transform into a super saiyan 3 there was little Vegeta could do to contain him and drain his blood. He'd probably still be able to at least give Kakarott a bloody nose, but that wasn't the point of the excercise. He needed the element of surprise.

Which was why he was on foot, doing his best to avoid making any sound in the dense undergrowth of the forest his prey was hiding near. And that was kind of a pain in the ass when you were used to flying anywhere you needed to be.

He'd known about Kakarott's problem with needles, but he really hadn't been aware of the extent of it. Back on Namek when the younger saiyan had thrown a fit, when he suspected Vegeta might give him a shot, Vegeta really hadn't given too much of a damn, since he'd had his own problems to worry about and the problem was inconsequential anyway, seeing how he was there to put Kakarott into the regen tank, anyway.

Now, though, it was slowly dawning on him just how much of a problem a fear of needles really could be. He'd relished the opportunity to inflict bodily and mental harm on his rival, but after three hours of tracking it was beginning to get a little annoying.

In fact, he'd already found Kakarott once before. Since he hadn't expected this to be that big a deal, he'd openly confronted him, and gotten out one of the needles Bulma had supplied him with, Kakarott had teleported out quicker than Vegeta had expected him to be able to. He would have to change his approach. He probably had to be happy teleporting off the planet hadn't occurred to Kakarott yet, so while that encounter made his job more difficult, at least it didn't make it impossible.

Fortunately, the prince of all saiyans was nearing his destination. Now he just had to be concentrated. If he messed up his one chance he'd probably be doing this all day, and honestly, following Kakarott around the planet was not going to be one of his favorite hobbies.

He approached the small clearing where he sensed Kakarott's ki signal. As far as he could tell he hadn't been detected yet.

In a flash he transformed to super saiyan, and, as fast as he could, sent four bolts of energy towards his startled opponent, which transformed into golden rings in mid-flight, pinning Kakarrot to the ground.

That, of course, wasn't quite ideal, but pinning him to a tree would be useless, since he'd be able to break that, and unlike the last time he'd done that in their fight over a year ago, there was no rock surface handy.

So floor would have to do. He was lucky, Kakarott was so startled by the attack, especially since Vegeta had kept his ki signature hidden so well before, that transforming into even a normal level super saiyan hadn't occurred to him.

"Finally", Vegeta grunted, as he entered the clearing and looked at the incapacitated Kakarott. "You're a real pain in the ass, you know that? I really have better things to do than follow you around the planet all day."

"Oh… hi there Vegeta", Kakarott said. "Didn't realize it was you, at first."

"Well since there are so many others on this planet who can pin you to the ground, I understand your confusion", Vegeta said sarcastically.

"What do you mean? Who else can…?" When he saw Vegeta's annoyed expression Goku picked up on the sarcasm. "Well, you just surprised me." He moved his hand a little, undoubtedly in an effort to scratch the back of his head just like he always did, but was zapped by the golden ring around his wrist.

"Whatever", Vegeta said in a bored tone. "This game has lost its appeal to me about an hour ago, so let's just get this over with." He pulled out one of the syringes, the sight of which made Goku pale considerably.

Vegeta kneeled down next do Kakarott's expsed elbow. "I really don't know why they let you get away with stunts like this", he said. "If I'd just abandoned my dying kid, all hell would've broke loose. But I guess the rules applying to you are different."

"Well, I can't help it, when I see a needle…" He broke off in the middle of the sentence, suddenly realizing what exactly Vegeta had said. "What do you mean 'dying'?"

"What do you think I mean, brainiac? I mean your son is sick with some unknown disease and has a machine breathing for him."

"But… but I mean… he's not really gonna die, right?" Kakarott looked genuinely scared at the thought as if that hadn't occurred to him on his own.

"How am I supposed to know? The medical boffins don't have a clue, so anything could happen. Not exactly the situation you want to spend running around the countryside for some childish fear of something that can barely cause mild discomfort, but then again, what do I know?" Kakarott didn't even seem to notice as Vegeta applied a tourniquet to make the veins more visible.

"But… I mean he's saiyan, right? It takes more than a stupid disease to take down one of us, doesn't it?"

"Do I really have to remind you of how your future self would've died if my time travelling son hadn't interfered? Saiyans have a resilient immune system, but that just means for something to take us down it has to really pack a punch." Vegeta pushed the needle into the vein he'd found, and received no reaction at all from his victim. Talk about anticlimactic.

"And… what about a senzu bean?"

"No idea. They can fix injuries, but can they kill infections?"

"Uhm…" it was pretty clear that that went over Kakarrot's head. "I don't know. Maybe?"

Vegeta pulled out the needle, and stuck the label on the now filled syringe. "You know, I'd have expected some screaming, at least. Isn't this supposed to be your biggest fear?", he said as he released the energy bounds.

"Huh?" As Kakarott sat up, he looked at his arm. "Whoa, you're done already?"

"Yes, otherwise I wouldn't have let you go, now would I?"

"Wow, Vegeta, you're really good at this. You could be a nurse", Goku said, smiling as he stood up.

It was, of course, the wrong thing to tell the already pissed off prince of all Saiyans. Vegeta pulled out the syringe his wife had given him as a back-up and showed it to his rival in as menacing a way as possible. Goku paled again, but before he could react, Vegeta stuck the needle into his arm.

This time he was rewarded with a scream.

When Bulma saw Vegeta and Goku make it back to the hospital floor, Goku immediately went into Goten's room without saying anything. The look on his face was a lot different than before, and Bulma could only guess as to what had caused the change.

Vegeta, on the other hand, simply looked annoyed. "Who do I give this to?", he said as he handed her a vial that was labelled "Third-class-idiot-blood"

Bulma couldn't contain a giggle at that, and pointed to the red-headed doctor, who was just making her way down the hallway. She waved for her to come over.

"We have that blood sample for you, now", Bulma announced, as the doctor pushed her glasses up her nose.

"Oh, the one that was missing? Mr. Son's?", the doctor said, and took it. She raised an eyebrow at the label, but seemed content to accept it without further questions.

"Yes. So you done with those other tests yet?", Bulma asked.

"Um… actually that's what I came here to talk to you about." The doctor bit her lip. "Mind if we sit down?"

"Is something wrong?", Bulma asked, trying to supress her worries for the moment. She sat down next to the doctor, but Vegeta remained standing.

"We got the results back, and the good news is, most are clear, including yourself and your husband", the doctor started.

"Most?" Bulma had an idea what could be coming next, and a sinking feeling of dread grabbed hold of her.

"There is one sample that tested positive…"

"Which one?" If it was neither her, nor Vegeta that didn't leave a lot of people she'd have to talk to her for, but Bulma hoped as hard as she could that the doctor wouldn't say what she suspected she was about to.

"It appears that your son is infected as well."

A/N: Thanks for your reviews, and sorry for the inconsistent updates. I'll try to be better next time.


	4. Chapter 4

For miles the only sound that could be heard was his labored breathing. It seemed that there should've been other sounds in a place as hellish as this, but there weren't. Or maybe he was so focused on trying not to sink below the surface that there was nothing else he could've heard.

Another vine wrapped itself around Goten's ankle, the harsh thorns digging painfully into his skin. With a grunt of pain he tried to shake it off, but the more he struggled, the tighter it went.

But he'd shaken off the ones before, as well. He just had to keep on fighting. Normally he would've just made a blast of ki and shot the vine off, but for some reason he couldn't find it within himself to gather the energy.

It was just way too hot. He had no idea how he had gotten here, or where here even was, but he had no idea whether he would be able to fight for that much longer. It seemed that the thorny vines that were trying to pull him down were gathering ferocity. There was nothing but thorny vines on the ground. Except for one place, where there seemed to be a something like a road made of gravel.

The sky was dark and stormy, and the mountains that could be seen off in the distance looked dark and threatening.

If only he could reach the road. It wasn't all that far from him, but with the vines constantly at his feet he had made little progress towards the road in all the time he had been here. Not that he could really tell how long it had been.

With a yell he managed to shake off the latest vine, only to have it almost immediately be replaced by the next one. He was beginning to toy with the idea of simply giving up the struggle, and finding out were he'd end up if he let himself be pulled down.

Just as that thought crossed his mind, something changed. He heard a noise. Footsteps. His head snapped around to look at the road, and sure enough, there was a figure approaching, shrouded partly in the fog.

Trepidation filled the little saiyan. Whoever that was, it was likely they had something to do with him being here, and if it was someone who lived in this place, he really wasn't all that anxious to meet them.

But it wasn't as if he could run away right now, and there was no way to hide. As he stood there, trying to see who was coming, he didn't pay all that close attention to the vine wrapped around his foot, and was suddenly yanked so roughly that he fell flat on his stomach.

The other vines didn't waste a second, and immediately two were trying to pull his hands down and another one started to tie itself around his midriff, the thorns tearing a large gash in the orange fabric of his gi. He tried to push himself off the ground, but that was completely covered in thorns, since for all he knew it consisted of vines.

"Goten?", he heard a familiar voice call. The figure was close enough now, to recognize, and Goten could've wept with relief when he realized who it was.

"Trunks!", he called, and tried to stand up, but the thorns dug into his hands as he tried, and he felt as if they were trying to push themselves into his skin.

"What is this place?", Trunks asked, his voice quivering slightly.

"I don't know", Goten said, but before he could think of anything else to say, a vine wrapped itself around his wrist so tightly that he let out a yelp.

A tightly controlled beam of golden energy cut off the vine, and the one that was wrapped around Goten's back, and Goten finally managed to get back on his feet, before he could be wrapped in aggressive plant again.

"Thanks", Goten said, and tried to walk towards his friend, only to be stopped by vines again.

"Why didn't you blast them yourself?"

"I can't. I don't know why, but I dont have the energy anymore. I could, before, but now I can't anymore."

Trunks took a few steps towards Goten, and one foot was already hovering over the vines, which were greedily stretching themselves to catch him. "Don't!", Goten yelled. "Stay there!"

Trunks pulled his foot back, but looked confused. He suddenly tilted his head and appeared to be listening to something, even though there were no sounds other than the ones they were making.

"Did you hear that?", he asked.

"Hear what?"

"That voice, it said… something…"

But before Trunks could explain what he'd heard, he vanished from the nightmarish landscape as though he'd never been there.

And Goten was all alone again.

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Norbert Coulton MD, was the foremost researcher working at West City Central hospital. His studies were acclaimed by many, and his expertise was limitless. According to him, anyway.

He really enjoyed his position. He could work on his research uninterrupted and exactly the way he wanted, with the occasional foray into the everyday hospital life, to help solve a difficult problem, and then returning to his work. He liked to be asked for help. It showed how much he was respected, and it helped train his medical skills, which he didn't use in his lab.

So when he'd been asked to look at a sample that the lab couldn't identify, he'd been delighted to help. He knew so much about infections, he could take one look at most microbes, and tell you exactly what they were, what they did, and how to treat them.

But not this one. Initially he had thought it was just a matter of looking into a book, to find the uncommon germ, but when that had turned up dry, he'd believed the samples were somehow corrupted, so he ordered all the tests redone.

Which had come up with the exact same result. After he'd spent quite a while doubting his own abilities, and consulting any database he could find, he'd finally come to the simply incredible conclusion. Whatever this infection was, no one had ever found it before. He was looking at something entirely undocumented, possibly in a class all of its own.

And if he played his cards right, it could mean a call from Stockholm in the near future. Because it was a lot easier to get a Nobel Prize for finding a disease than for curing one. Because curing diseases was a much more complicated thing than finding them.

But Dr. Coulton was, even if he didn't want everyone to know, at his core, an idealist. How much more impressive would it be, if he didn't only find the disease, but if he cured it as well? Saving two cute kids from a potentially deadly disease would probably make him more famous than Dr. House.

But he was getting ahead of himself. To start off, he had decided to look at the two kids, and see their state for himself. He hadn't expected that to get this difficult though.

"This is completely ridiculous!", the boy with the odd hair color yelled. "I'm not sick, I don't need to be in this stupid room, and I want to see Goten."

"Blood tests revealed that you… would you just hold still for one moment?" Dr. Coulton was had intended to listen to the boy's breath sounds, but as it was, he hadn't even gotten close to him with a stethoscope.

"Well they're probably wrong. And you don't need to wear those ridiculous clothes, you know." The kid was referring to the gloves, mask and overcoat he was wearing.

"Look, it's a precaution. We don't know how either of you got infected, so everyone that comes in here needs to wear protective clothes. It's regulation." Dr. Coulton wasn't exactly a prime example of the medical profession, when it came to bedside manners, part of the reason why he worked in research, and he was already regretting having even come up to this wing.

"Screw your stupid rules. I'm fine", Trunks said, squatting the doctor's hand away as he tried to approach once again. Which made his hand hurt more than a kid of that size should be capable of. "And you can't keep me in this stupid isolation, you know? I can walk out any minute."

"Well then you would be endangering everyone in this hospital" Trunks had now jumped off the bed and was resolutely blocking any attempt of Dr. Coulton's to examine him.

"I was walking around before that stupid test, and everything was fine."

"Just let me examine you. I'm not trying to hurt you -…" he was interrupted by a snort.

"As if you could."

Norbert couldn't resist the temptation to roll his eyes. "That's not the point. If you don't cooperate, we can't let you out of this room. I thought that's what you wanted!"

"Doesn't matter. I can just walk out whenever I want to!"

"Yeah, you said that. So why don't you, huh?" Doctors weren't supposed to lose their temper with patients, because it wasn't good from a psychological perspective, but god, that kid was obnoxious.

"Cause my parents believe your bullshit, and they want me to stay. But I bet they'll be fed up with this, soon, too. And then I'm just walking out, no matter what you or any other egghead says!"

"Aren't kids your age supposed to be cute?", Dr. Coulton grabbed his head exasperatedly.

"Aren't doctors your age supposed to be smart?", Trunks shot back.

"Yes, we are. I am, I mean. And just because you don't feel sick right now, doesn't mean that you're healthy. How does that not get into that thick skull of yours?"

"Maybe your test was wrong. It probably was, seeing how incompetent you are", the kid shot back.

"No, it wasn't, we ran it twice, and you are without a doubt infected. That doesn't mean the disease has to be symptomatic but it does mean you are carrying the pathogen inside your blood stream." The kid looked at him strangely, and he realized he'd gotten a little too medical-talky for a nine-year-old.

"Look", he said, squatting down. "Do you know what an incubation period is?"

"Yeah, sure", the kid said with a confidence, that seemed to be false. "It's stuff that incubates. Periodically."

"Well if you know what it means, then I'm sure you've heard about what happens, when someone gets infected", Dr. Coultun said, finally remembering a bit of psychology and trying not to call the kid out on having no idea what he was talking about. "As you know, an infection is made out of hundreds of tiny beings that attack the body on the inside. But, when you're infected, it's just a few that make it, so they need to become more, before they can really attack you. And the time it takes for them to do that, is of course…" he looked expectantly at the kid.

"… The incubation period?", Trunks said hesitantly. Dr. Coulton nodded. "I knew that."

Dr. Coulton did his best to resist the urge to further comment on how it was obvious that Trunks had known that, but he couldn't quite help the sarcastic tone as he said: "Of course you knew that. So, you have to realize, we don't know how long you've been infected. So maybe you're still in the incubation period, or maybe you won't be getting sick, but to be sure I need to take a look at you and find out."

Trunks still looked defiant, but Dr. Coulton had a feeling his resistance was wearing down. The kid scoffed and then said, "Fine, whatever."

Dr. Coulton breathed a sigh of relief, when he was finally able, to listen to the boy's breath sounds. Only to have that breath hitching in his throat once he realized what he was hearing.

Vegeta was really annoyed by the glass wall between him an his son. It wasn't that he couldn't get past it, or that it severely hindered communications, they could talk just fine, but the whole principle of the thing.

Of course, it was for protection. For protection from whatever it was that was trying to kill his son. And he couldn't do anything about it. If it had just been about protecting himself he wouldn't have given a damn, and just torn down that stupid glass wall and all it represented, but it wasn't just about him. If he went in there, even if it didn't hurt him, he could possibly take the infection to others, and he was not going to risk the only other person on the planet he cared about, to be infected as well.

So he sat there, behind the glass wall, like any good little human would have, following the rules. Even just the fact that he as following the rules was irking him in a very personal way.

"This is just so boring", Trunks said. "I don't want to be stuck here. I hope that stupid Doctor dude isn't keeping me here just to mess with me."

"I've met him, briefly, and I'm sure he wouldn't dare messing with any member of this family", Vegeta announced. Not that anyone who had a little bit of information on who this family was had a big incentive to mess with them.

"Speaking of which, where's mom, anyway?", Trunks asked casually. Something about the tone he asked in seemed off, though. He probably cared where his mother was a little more than he would've liked to admit.

"Last time I saw her, someone was dumping stacks of paperwork on her, and I decided to retreat."

"Oh, so you left her to fend off the bureaucrats on her own?", Trunks asked with a chuckle.

"Yes. There might be some yelling about that, later. But, if she asks, we're spending 'quality time' and what not", Vegeta said.

"Yeah, sure", Trunks agreed. They both knew that spounting any "touchy-feely" crap would probably get them out of trouble with Bulma pretty easily.

After a moment of silence Trunks said, "Hey Dad?"

"Hn?"

"Thanks."

"For what?", Vegeta asked, confused.

"For not looking at me like I'm going to fall over any second. Every time mom looks at me since that stupid test she tears up. It's kind of freaking me out, as if everyone just waiting for me to get mortally sick."

"So… what you're saying is, you prefer the way I'm acting, which your mother has criticized me for, to her way of acting?", Vegeta asked thoughtfully.

"Yeah, I guess I am", Trunks said with a sheepish grin.

"I'm so gonna her face in that", Vegeta said triumphantly.

They went silent again for a moment, before Trunks piped up, "Dad? Do you think I'm really get sick now?"

"Maybe, maybe not. Could be you react differently to he infection, and don't get sick. That would probably help them figure out how to get rid of this ting", Vegeta said.

"Really? Everyone else just keeps talking about how I'm gonna get sick."

"Either scenario is possible, I suppose", Vegeta said.

"Well that sounds better, at least", Trunks said, but suddenly stopped talking, and started coughing.

Honestly, the coughing was startling even to Vegeta, because Trunks hadn't shown any sort of symptom before, and now he was coughing so loudly it sounded like he was trying to remove his lungs from his torso.

When he was done coughing, Trunks just stared at the hand he'd been using to cover his mouth with for a moment, without saying anything.

"What is it?", Vegeta asked, but he was pretty sure he already knew the answer.

Trunks didn't say anything, but simply lifted his hand to let his father see.

It was covered in blood.

A/N: Sorry for the long delay, moving to a new city, starting college and then Nanowrimo had me occupied. Also sorry this chapter didn't move the plot forward too far, but it was needed for pacing reasons.

The next update will come quicker, and also there's going to be more drama. Stay tuned, and in the meantime, tell me what you think!


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